Alpha Vintage - Attempt to make the call from the browser not working

Need help APIs
1

Hi all,

I’m writing this post to document a deeply frustrating issue I encountered with the Alpha Vantage API in Bubble. Part 1: The Initial Problem - The Phantom Rate Limit

It all started when I tried to connect to the Alpha Vantage API. Despite using a brand new, unused free API key, every single attempt to initialize the call in the API Connector resulted in this error: “Information”: “We have detected your API key as [API_KEY] and our standard API rate limit is 25 requests per day…”

I knew this was impossible as the key was minutes old. I even generated a second key, and the same thing happened.

My first troubleshooting step was to test the API key outside of Bubble. I pasted the full request URL into my browser, and it worked perfectly, returning the correct JSON data. This confirmed my key was valid and the problem was somewhere within Bubble.

Bubble Support Team said to follow this workaround: ‘‘Allow call to run directly in the browser where applicable

Check this box to allow this API call to run directly from the browser, rather than Bubble’s server.

This option will only available in certain situations. More specifically, this option is only available for public API calls (Authentication is set to None) with no Headers or private Parameters. In addition, the call must be used as a data call. Support for Use as Action is coming soon.

The biggest benefit of using this option, on top of performance, is that your API call will not count against API call quotas across all of Bubble, lessening the risk of accidental rate limiting by a 3rd party API.’’

Part 3: The Final, Confusing Result

With the “magic button” now checked, I re-initialized the call, expecting success. What I got was the most confusing result of all.

The API call was technically a success according to Bubble. The returned values showed:

  • returned_an_error: false

  • error.status_code: 200

  • error.status_message: "OK"

However, when I looked at the raw data in the body of this “successful” response, it contained the exact same “rate limit” error message from Alpha Vantage.

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Could you please help?

Many thanks,

Roxana

2

When API calls fail in Bubble from the browser, it’s often tied to CORS or authentication. Double-check whether the service allows client-side calls, since many APIs require server-side execution for security. Using the Bubble API Connector in backend workflows can bypass those restrictions. Also inspect the browser console—if you see CORS errors, you’ll likely need a proxy or server-side setup.